


🎵Snowballs flying through a public street 🎵

by Blueyedgurl



Series: Reylo holidays [5]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Injury, Meet-Cute, Snowball Fight, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:07:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28197393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueyedgurl/pseuds/Blueyedgurl
Summary: Rey clocks Stranger!Ben in the face with a snowball and takes him inside to patch him up.  He makes a comment about the man in the photo on her fridge and she drags him to Han's shop to reunite the two.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Reylo holidays [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2049108
Comments: 11
Kudos: 90





	🎵Snowballs flying through a public street 🎵

“Finn stop!” Rey said with a squeal as she ducked behind a car, the white ball of snow whistled by her head. 

“You’re going to get it Niima!” Finn shouted from across the street. 

“I’ll call a truce if you put that snowball down right now!” Rey shouted as she scrambled to make her own projectile.

“You whitewashed me!” Finn retorted.

“It was just a joke!” Rey said through a laugh.

Rey looked around, she didn’t know where Poe and Rose went in the fray but she had to be vigilant. 

“I promise I’ll be good.” She said, securing a second snowball. She heard footsteps and knew that she had limited time. 

“Niima!” Poe called and she sensed a trap. Rey turned and flung her missiles in the direction of the approaching footsteps.

“Ow! Son of a bitch.” She heard a low growl that didn’t match her companions. 

“Oh my god.” Rey squeaked as she scrambled around the bumper of the car to see a large man sprawled out on the sidewalk. 

“Oh no no no no. I’m sooooo so sorry.” Rey said hurrying to his side only to get pelted in the back by a snowball but she couldn’t worry about that now.

“Man down!” She heard Poe shout from the other side of the street.

“Are you okay?” She asked, helping the man to sit up and realizing that there was a cut over his eyebrow, much to her dismay.

“Oh no.” Rey said, pulling her hand out of her glove to cup his cheek with her hand. “I’m so sorry. Did you hit your head?” She asked her hand going through the thick locks of his hair to look for bumps. “My apartment is right over there if you want, we can get you cleaned up. I feel like it’s the least I can do.” She offered, trying to be as hospitable as possible. He looked like he could afford a lawsuit. 

The man’s scowl softened to something resembling surprise at her offer and nodded. She helped him up off the sidewalk, brushing snow off his wool coat before putting her glove back on.

“Where are you going?” Rose asked.

“I’m just going to take him up and get him washed up.” Rey said, Rose just gave her a grimace and nodded.

“If you need anything we’ll be back at Poe’s.” Rose said before waggling her eyebrows and leading Rey to shoot her a scowl of her own. 

Rey was absolutely mortified over what had happened.

“I’m sorry, I thought you were one of them.”

“No, I should have realized walking through a snowball fight was a bad idea.” He huffed out a breath and she hoped he could see the humor in it.

“I’m Rey, by the way.” She said as she opened the door to let him into her building. 

“Ben.” He said as she led the way to her third-floor walk-up.

She led him to her apartment and only then did the nerves of nearly concussing a total stranger with a snowball give way to inviting a strange man into her apartment. Her hands shook as she attempted to put the key in the lock.

“I’m sorry, again.” She said, looking up at her victim and the view of his eyebrow starting to swell washed away any major worries. He was dressed too nicely to want to rob her of anything in her meagre apartment.

She shouldered her way through the door, keeping an eye out for anything embarrassing that might be laying around.

“Have a seat.” Rey offered, pulling her book bag off the kitchen chair for him to sit while she went and got the first aid kit from the bathroom.

She hadn’t missed the way his eyes crawled over her apartment, taking in the mismatched and half broken furniture. She hoped the wobbly chair would support his large frame.

When she returned he was stood back up.

“I think I’m fine, I should go, really.” He tried to excuse himself to leave.

Rey went from being accommodating to being offended.

“Look, I know that I assaulted you with a flying ball of frozen water, but you don’t get to be rude just because my apartment isn’t as nice as yours probably is. I’m only trying to help you and make up for hurting you.” She said breathing harshly through her nose. He gave her a look of surprise and then sat back down in the chair rather stiffly.

“Thank you.” She said a bit icily and approached him with her first aid kit. She softened some when she looked at the wound, a few scrapes, a lager cut, and he wouldn’t be able to escape some bruising. 

“Are you a nurse or something?” He asked when she wiped his wound clean, she didn’t miss the slight wince and tried to be gentler.

“No.” She said as she reached for the disinfectant. “I just grew up rough, you learned to take care of yourself.” She couldn’t even say why she told him that much and his shoulders relaxed some and he took in a breath as if preparing himself to speak.

“I wasn’t going to leave because of your apartment…” His eyes darted away and his through bobbed before he continued, and she paused before putting the band aid on.

“That picture over there.” He nodded toward the one on her fridge. 

“What about it?” Rey squinted at the fridge, there were a few photos of her and friends and co-workers.

“That man you’re with… That’s my dad.” Her eyes zeroed in on the photo of her at the shop.

“Han?” She looked at him and bits and pieces of memories filtered through her thoughts.

“Yeah.”

“You’re his Ben.” For a moment, the man looked surprised.

“Yes.” 

“He talks about you all the time you know.” His eyes became glassy but he blinked and he shook his head.

“I don’t know-“

“His shop is still around the corner, I work there, you could stop in.”

“I just-“

“He’s probably still there.” She felt an urgent need to reunite this man with the boss who had been like a father to her the last few years.

“I-“ Ben tried but she was determined. She slapped a band aid on his head and bundled herself back up before grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him along into the hall.

“We’re going.” Rey insisted on their way down the stairs.

Despite his size he didn’t resist as much as he could have. He let her drag him down the stair well of the apartment and through the snow covered streets. It was when they turned the corner that she realized that must have been where he was coming from.

“That’s where you had been earlier, hadn’t it?”

He let out a huff.

“How could you guess?”

“You’re dressed too nicely to live in this neighborhood.” 

“Yeah, I thought parking away from the shop would give me a chance to clear my head, instead it gave me a chance to chicken out.” Ben huffed as they both hopped over a snowbank after crossing a street. 

Rey wobbled a bit on her shorter legs and Ben reached out to steady her. 

“Thanks.” She said, brushing an errant strand of hair out of her face. “So, when was the last time you talked to him?”

“When I was 15 or 16? They sent me away to live with my uncle because I couldn’t stay out of trouble.” He said with a shrug, his breath puffing into a cloud of mist in the cold night.

“That’s a long time.” Rey said, sympathetically.

“Yeah…” He was quiet for a minute and he stopped when they turned the last corner to the shop. “You’re sure he wants to see me.”

“Are you kidding? There’s a picture of you on his desk and he doesn’t shut up about you.” Rey told him, noting the telltale ears that peeked out from his hair.

Ben nodded and his broad chest expanded with a breath. If she was being honest, he looked like he was going to be sick.

“I can go with you if you want.” Rey offered. 

His eyes widened in surprise and his breathing hitched.

“I appreciate it, but it’s definitely something I need to do on my own.”

“Okay.” She wasn’t hurt, only disappointed to part ways with him. 

“Are you going to be ok getting home?” He asked her, it’d been a long time someone expressed concern for her like that.

“Yeah, I walk it every day.” She said, taking her cue to turn and leave. “It was nice meeting you Ben, don’t be a stranger.”

She had taken a few steps back towards home when a hand gripped her elbow to stop her.

“And Rey?”

She turned to look at her new acquaintance.

“Thank you.” He told her, his features softened. 

She smiled at him.

“You’re welcome to our snowball fights anytime Ben Solo.” 

He graced her with a wide smile, and she was nearly knocked out by how warm it was and she hoped it wouldn’t be the last time she saw it.

She made her way back to her apartment the snow had stopped and was replaced with the harsh cold that often comes after. Her boots crunched in the freezing slush and she thought about going to Poe’s apartment to continue their Christmas Eve festivities but didn’t have the energy to. 

She thought about Ben returning to his dad on Christmas Eve, that it was this magical return to family. A part of her was happy that the prodigal the son returned. She was happy for Han and hoped that Ben would eventually return to Leia, too.

But a part of her felt sad that nobody was out searching for her tonight. As a kid she was always waiting for her family to come back but she grew out of the belief that anyone was coming for her when she aged out of a system that repeatedly failed her. 

When she got home, she texted Rose to tell her not to wait, that she was home, Ben was gone, and she was going to step into the bath. She was slow getting ready, stripping off her clothes and pulling on her bathrobe, content in having the apartment to herself for the moment. 

She turned on music that let her feel sad without pulling her into a straight up depression and put the kettle on for tea. She was startled by a knock on the door and didn’t think anything of it when she went to answer. It could have easily been a keyless Rose coming to retrieve something forgotten or one of the guys coming to drag her back to their party for orphans. She was shocked to see Ben standing there when she opened the door. 

“Oh, you came back.”

“Hi.” His eyes traveled down her body and she realized she was probably very underdressed to answer the door to a stranger.

“That was fast. Is something wrong? Did you forget something?”

Ben huffed a laugh and his lips quirked as he seemed to turn over his words.

“I’m meeting with my parents tomorrow for lunch. As soon as my dad found out that I was hit in the head and then dragged to the shop by you, he said that I would be uninvited to Christmas if I didn’t come back to find you right now.”

Rey chuckled, it sounded precisely like Han.

“So, I was hoping to give you my number and maybe offer you dinner?”

“I-“ She was interrupted by the tea kettle. “How about you come in for a cup of tea and we can talk about dinner.” She offered. 

Ben just nodded and slipped through the gap in the door. 

Rey had to admit that she was wrong, maybe there really was someone out there looking for her, she just didn’t know it.


End file.
